Thanks DG.. I try out of necessity but also I love the challenge of seeing how far I can stretch my money and my food. My food budget is one of only a few areas that can be manipulated to save money. The other items are more or less set in stone..You do well for yourself as well.. Janet Alliesmama

Using up odds and ends in the fridge. Made a stir fry of cabbage, onions, and half of an Italian sausage.. Also threw in a couple of baby carrots that Teddi refused to eat.. He sometimes loves his baby carrots and other times not..Breakfast was ketogenic English muffin made in to an egg McMuffin with an egg, Canadian bacon, and a sprinkle of grated cheese.. I am going to freeze the few slices of Canadian bacon for some time in Sept. I know I will appreciate it more then since I am cutting back on buying food in Sept.Lunch was a big salad with homemade Asian salad dressing, sunflower seeds, a few almonds as well as a hard boiled egg and a sprinkle of canned cheese from my pantry supply. Followed by a fresh peach from my trees.

I have sorted through the peaches I picked and have a ton of them in the fridge. Will make peach jam sometime this week. Plan on making peach jam for myself and will give some away as gifts for Christmas. I would like to can more but I just get too tired. I called one of my neighbors and she and her husband will pick what they want. The peach thief can take whatever is left if any are left.. I gave a sack of them to my aide last week.. They will go bad soon so someone should have the use of what is left. I picked 6 pears off of my tree tonight. They are really to big for the tree branch that is why I picked them.. I will try to ripen them and then cook them down and put them in the freezer. I have 10 apples that have fallen off of my tree over the last couple of weeks due to the wind.. I plan on cooking them down as well and put them in the freezer. Every two to three days I find about 3 to 4 strawberries on my plants and pick them just to eat out of hand.

Seems like the month of August has just flown by. I hate to wish my life away but so glad summer is winding down.. I have never liked summer. Fall, winter, and spring are my favorite times of the year. Looking forward to austere Sept. I have been going through my pantry, fridge, and freezer and taking notes on what I have and what I might need.. The one thing I like about the internet is that if you have a food item and you are not sure what to do with it you can usually find a recipe for it on line. A while back I had just a tiny amount of cornmeal left. Not much to do anything with but when I typed in the amount I had a recipe came up using just that exact amount.. Janet Alliesmama

I have been having a problem with billing from an emergency room Dr from last year. I kept getting bills from the office that I owed him $1,269.00. However I have never heard anything from medicare on if they were going to pay on it or what was going on. Every time I called medicare they would tell me that the Drs office had made an error in their original billing and they needed to resubmit it..I would call the Drs office and tell them this and they would say ok.. Checked again today with medicare and they again said the same thing and decided to refer me to one of their specialist. After hearing what has been going on the specialist stated that she was going to file a complaint against the company for assignment violations as well as failure with contractor obligation. I told her I was concerned since it will be one year Sept 27th and that if is not filed and paid for I was not sure of how I would pay the Dr. She told me that I was not responsible for the bill no matter what the outcome because of the circumstances.. What a relief.. I wonder how many other people take things at face value and do not realize they need to do a follow up with medicare to see what the status of the bill is and if they are responsible for paying the bill. I kept getting Final Notice and assumed that the claim had been denied for whatever reason they had. So always check with medicare even if getting a bill from the Drs office. Janet Alliesmama

I cut up all of the windblown apples and have them cooking on the stove, will add a little bit of sugar and cinnamon. In the past have tried cooking them with sugar sub but the taste is not right.. I do not use a lot of sugar just enough to enhance it a little bit.I like my apples a bit on the tart side. I will then portion them out in individual containers for the freezer. They will really taste good when I start to make more Fall like meals. The cost is so minuscule due to the free apples and the small amount of sugar and cinnamon used.

I saved the carcass from the rotisserie chickens bought really cheap last week. I have been cooking some of it in my crock pot all day.. Smells really good. I pulled the bones out and have them cooling. Will then pick off all of the little bits of meat left on them for Teddi. I have cooked a pot of rice and have been mixing the rice and chicken for his meals.. I will then put the bones back in and let them slowly cook overnight to make a richer bone broth stock. Then tomorrow morning will throw the bones away and strain the broth and add dehydrated carrots, onions and celery and let that simmer most of the day. I have some nice chucks of chicken in the freezer that will be added later on and then will make gluten free dumplings to go with the chicken soup. I do not have the actual numbers but think the whole pot of chicken and dumplings might come to around $1.25 if that since most of it was bought on sale and using small amounts of foods.I plan on making some kind of muffin tonight or tomorrow.. I am going through carb withdrawal..lol. I enjoy my keto foods but every now and then I need a true grain based carb of some kind..

I have been making iced coffee in the afternoon with leftover coffee from my morning coffee..